Wow, that was quick! Got them this morning, and on their standard delivery.

From my initial experimentation, I would say that the two biggest problems except for the lack of side protection for the trigger finger and little finger are:

1. The difficulty of bending the hand back 'through the thumb' to the elbow, e.g. when pulling back from a right-side oberhau through a moulinet (not sure of longsword terminology) to a left-side false edge oberhau. Does that make sense?

2. The previously mentioned plate at the end of the thumb. I have found that this makes it very difficult for me to get a proper thumb grip on the handle, but I think that this could be fixed by 'shortening' the plate. Has anyone tried this?

Shortening the thumb plate, I'm assuming the one that covers the front of the thumb, looks like quite alot of work if you were to unsew the parts to get access to it.

But I guess what you could do, is carefully cut a line along the front of the thumb plate so you can use another piece of material to sew back and reinforce the opening after you finished shortening the thumb plate.

If you receive a hit while hitting your opponent your glory will be null as this would make you simultaneously victor and vanquished. Do not therefore share your victory with the opponent - and do not let him share his shame with you. -Manciolino